Phuong Tuong stewed frog

Phuong Tuong village is in Tien Lu district. The folk verse about this dish has been existing for a long time, which proves that this popular food has been elevated to the art in cuisine.

The first step to make a delicious stewed frog dish is to choose the right type of frog. It is important to choose frogs from September and October downwards when they are hiding in their holes to escape the cold of winter so they are really fatty. Their meat is the most delicious during this period of the year. Frogs caught in March are skinny as they have utilized all their energy for parturition. After choosing the right kind of frog, the processing of frog must also be carried out very carefully. Bamboo leaves, lime water and salt should be used with warm water to remove the mucilage from frog.

Frog is processed into two dishes. If you do frog meat-pie, its skin must be shed skillfully in an undamaged shape. Frog meat is minced with dry tangerine peels, wood ear fungus, mushrooms, mixed lean and fat meat and eggs added with spice, pepper, chilli and monosodium glutamate. All the ingredients are pounded as smooth as possible. Then the mixture is stuffed back into frog’s skin in a frog's shape. The frog must be stuffed like a starving frog as it will expand when it is done, which is good enough.

Put the stuffed frog on the dish sitting like frog alive, and then put it into the autoclave. Before the stuffed frog is done to a turn, pour stirred-well chicken or duck eggs onto the frog, making it look like wearing a luffa flower. When it is done, cut it into pieces and it is served with fish sauce together with pepper. This speciality is an unforgetable taste.

Another dish is the stewed frog. When processing frog, only take net fat. Put the frog on the cutting board and use knife frame to drub its bones carefully so that the original is still holding the frog's shape. Then mix it with ferment, dried tangerine peel, black mushroom, pepper, tiny shrimp sauce and fat water in half an hour for the mixture to infuse. Use bamboo string to bind the frog and cook it with bamboo shoot and mixed lean and fat meat. Cook it until the frog is done to a turn so that the frog and water are held barely in a bowl.

The frog must be well-cooked; the water must have dark yellow color like honey and fragrant charm. This dish is served with lettuce, salad, and strong wine. This is a unique character of this dish.